January 05, 2013

Apple's iPhone 5 & iPad Mini Target in New 4G Lawsuit from Adaptix

A Delaware company by the name of Adaptix has filed a patent infringement lawsuit against Apple. The patent infringement lawsuit concerns 4G technology. In two published reports last year (one and two) we pointed to the fact that Apple had been quietly acquiring LTE 4G related patents from Nortel and others to fend off potential lawsuits from Samsung. Now others are circling the wagon. In December Wi-LAN sued Apple over LTE technology and now Adaptix with their claim that the iPhone 5 and iPad Mini infringe upon their technology.

Adaptix has filed two formal complaints before the court against Apple. In the first count, Adaptix claims that Apple has infringed on their patent 7,454,212 titled "OFDMA with Adaptive subscriber-cluster configuration and selective loading." Adaptix claims that Apple's iPhone 5 and oddly the iPad mini directly infringe on their patent. Why they chose the iPad mini alone and not the full sized iPad isn't known at this time.

Adaptix's second count against Apple uses patent 6,947,748 which carries the same title and lists the same Apple products as their first complaint claiming infringement.

The case was filed in the United States Eastern Texas District Court in Tyler. No Judge has been assigned to this case as of yet.

It should be noted that Adaptix was acquired by Acacia Research Corporation in January 2012. In that same month, TechCrunch politely described the company as one "in the business of exploiting intellectual property by means of lawsuits and aggressive patent licensing schemes," which translates into Patent troll. Some may argue that they're defenders of IP which or non-practicing entities.

A recent report published by Reuters cites a new study by Colleen Chien, a law professor at Santa Clara University which claimed that roughly 61 percent of all patent lawsuits filed through Dec. 1 2012 were brought by patent trolls or "patent-assertion entities," or individuals and companies that work aggressively and opportunistically to assert patents as a business model rather than build their own technology. That compares with 45 percent in 2011 and 23 percent five years ago.

Yet the distinguishing factor in this case, is that Adaptix is the one who filed for the original patents. So while they may be owned by a top Patent Troll, the IP in this case was developed by Adaptix legitimately.

NOTICE: Patently Apple presents only a brief summary of certain legal cases/ lawsuits which are part of the public record for journalistic news purposes. Readers are cautioned that Patently Apple does not offer an opinion on the merit of the case and strictly presents the allegations made in said legal cases / lawsuits. A lawyer should be consulted for any further details or analysis. About Comments: Patently Apple reserves the right to post, dismiss or edit comments. On most legal cases, comments will be closed. See our Legal Archives for other patent infringement cases.